Silver was where I stopped being part of the fandom. 350 pokémon is too many. I also lament the decline in popularity of the card game. I managed to find one person who could actually play using the real rules (instead of the "I have Charizard. Flame attack! You're dead!" that populated my primary school play-time) but he was a sore loser who would constantly try to persuade you that the rules had changed so that he didn't have to lose.

I think it's a decent enough game, as long as you don't believe the "catch'em all" trick they use to encourage purchases. I played a while ago, and I found that it was decent enough if you just grabbed a few you liked and used them, instead focusing on having 432 (or whatever the heck it is) little war-slaves.

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. ~Eden Phillpotts, A Shadow Passes

I dunno: I'm actually quite enthralled by the later editions of the games. Granted, I never got into the trading cards, but the complexity of the video games fascinates me. I don't really think that the nearly 500 Pokemon are that bad: it's just more of a challenge that way.

While I clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning,And my heart was filled with mournng, mourning for my dear amour."'Tis not possible!" I uttered, "Give me back my free hardcore!"Quoth the server: 404.

After Yellow it got ridiculous. Having 151/2 or so was perfect, you had about five or so for each type and there were tons of different types, so you could structure a team off of eitherA) Pokemon who were just plain badassB) Pokemon who worked well together, even if they weren't that cool

But once they added the second set to make it 300 or so....no. That's Wizards of the Coast needing new content to sell more merchandise, not an improvement to a game.

Red, blue and yellow have the best nostalgia value for me, but the game balance was a bit broken, with psychic>everything else. It was good for goofing around by yourself, but if you actually battled people who knew what they were doing, you'd realize that there was NO DEFENCE aginst psychic. The only thing super effective against it (bug) sucked, and no useful pogeys resisted it.

Second generation was a lot better, at least technically, then first, although there were still places where I felt it needed improvement. It was good that they nerfed psychic, and some of the new pokes were quite interesting. The second half of the game (after the elite 4) seemed kind of like a rushed bonus level, but I didn't mind too much. It was still nice to go around, beat up some familiar faces, and then take out Red.

Third generation was, in my opinion, probably the weakest, although I enjoyed it a lot anyways. Some of the new pokemon were kind of silly, but there were still some cool new ones. It didn't bring too much to the table, but it had a more interesting plot. It was shorter than I liked, but I still got plenty of replay value out of it, going back and training my favorites.

Fourth generation is my current favorite, although that may pass once my initial happiness wears off. Some of the new pokemon are terrible, it's true, but there are plenty of ones I really like as well. The plot seemed a bit more interesting, and there's still places to explore after the Elite 4 (not as many as second generation, but more than third.) Another thing that I like is online play, as it allows me more intelligent opponents than my brother and the (very small) number of people who play it at my high school.

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. ~Eden Phillpotts, A Shadow Passes

Yes, RB/Y was best generation, GS/C was good as far as some of the features they added to the game (like breeding). I've played Ruby for a little, but didn't get much out of it - although I do like the "running" feature.I think there is a lot that could be done to improve the games though.

thecommabandit wrote:I also lament the decline in popularity of the card game. I managed to find one person who could actually play using the real rules (instead of the "I have Charizard. Flame attack! You're dead!" that populated my primary school play-time) but he was a sore loser who would constantly try to persuade you that the rules had changed so that he didn't have to lose.

At least you managed to find one person For my pokecard fix I had to play the gameboy game <shudder>

You're thinking of a Pegasus. Unicorns don't fly, they just sort of... plummet.

I started with Pkmn Blue in 98-99 ish, while my sister had Red. Like everyone we'd trade the exclusive ones between eachother and do the upgrades for Allakhazams and Machamps. Got yellow shortly after, but didn't enjoy it as much due to Pikachu being such a pansy and the removal of the good ol' MissingNo. cheat.

Played the G/S/C era as well. Lugia was awesome and the final lifeline of my team on many occasion, who would go on to wipe the floor with about 5 of the opposing team.

Didn't have an N64, so couldn't experience that wing of the initial Pokemon craze, and what Pokemon cards I had (including a shiny Charizard) got lost along the way.

Had copies of Ruby and Sapphire, and after clearing Ruby once I had the master-plan of outfitting both cartridges with a full starter team, that I eventually couldn't be arsed to finish off.

Played Colosseum and Channel (the latter only to get that rare Jirachi, which sucked anyway) as well, but haven't really touched Pokemon in years. Nostalgic thoughts, yes, played it, no.

Red/Blue/Yellow era gets my vote though. It was the simplest and like they say sometimes, "the original is always best". Never managed a complete full 150 pokemon or whatever they went up to on later games, nor did I get any of the event ones like a Mew or Deoxys.

I think I like Gold/Silver the best (Silver being my game of choice). While I was really into my Red version (it was the first one I played and it really captured me (I was also ~10/11)), and Yellow was good, I just really liked Silver (I liked the legendaries they added and the ability to go back to Kanto was pretty cool, too (breeding was nice, too)). I played Crystal, but it wasn't that much different from G/S, and I haven't really played Diamond all that much.

(I apologize for my over-use of parentheses.)

Incidentally, am I the only one who really liked Eevee? I didn't really use them all that much, but they were fun and it was cool that they could evolve into all the different forms.

Note: Edited to change "Sapphire" to "Crystal" (way to go, me, giving the wrong name to the game).

My choice is Silver.I used to play Blue, but Silver is, in my opinion, the most balanced of them all. Not too many pokemon, and not too few.I didn't even try playing the next generations.BTW, does anyone know what happens when you collect them all in each game?

Along with Super Mario Land, Super Mario Land 2 6 Golden Rings. Pokemon Red was my first Gameboy pocket game (also my first ever console).Red has to be my alltime favourite followed by Yellow. (blue had a strange feel to it that I never liked)I got into the S/G/C and can name any pokemon from the first 2 generations if you show me a picture. (I had Silver then Crystal, Gold was retarded)Never got Emerald/Ruby (I had kinda grown out)However I got diamond and downloaded it once it had been released in the states (6 months before my homeland of europe).It was alright, too many novelties if you ask me.

I have recently however downloaded Red (and super mario Land) for my DS and am enjoying playing it again. Also looking into getting a Gameboy Micro so I can carry classics around with more ease than my DSL.

MarshyMarsh wrote:I ... can name any pokemon from the first 2 generations if you show me a picture.

Oh, I remember those days.... The days when the height, weight, element, name, number, and move list of all the first 151 pokemon was stored in my memory.... Sad, really.Now, of course, I only have name- and element-recognition left, but for the 251, which is a greater number. So I guess it balances out.Nope, still sad.

The biggest problem I have with yellow is that you can get all three starters from red/blue without trading, which... umm... just annoys me, I suppose. Yellow has got a lot less bugs and much better graphics, though.

It appears that I'm agreeing with a great many others here when I say that G/S/C were alright, then it started getting stupid, and I stopped playing them.

Oh, and the standard lineup I use for the Elite Four on yellow (It's the only one I've still got a copy of - yes, I do play it from time to time ) is Kadabra*, Charizard, Gyarados, Fearow (I've beaten Lance in the past because Fearow's somehow survived a blizzard and mirror moved it back), Zapdos (or Pikachu if I've not bothered to get Zapdos, but he generally sucks due to unevolvability*) and either Raticate(super fang FTW!), DragonairT or Chansey, the last two being damage soaks.

*I have noone to trade with, and no cable to use anywayTAnd all these are < level 45, my best team being (I think) 44, 42, 41, 39, 44 [pikachu] and 32 [dragonair] respectively. This explains the underevolved state of Dragonair.

Oh, and on the remembering pokemans (damn, I wish opera accepted ctrl+alt+e...), I could, at one point, recite about 110 of the R/B/Y monsters in order, which I am most definitely not proud of.

i went with the early days--yellow was amazing. red and blue.. but without the incessant trading (except for goddamn gengar...)

gold and silver pissed me off with the eassssssy elite four. I mean, the last 2 or 3 gym leaders in yellow/red/blue could've taken gold and silver's elite four. level 50 as the highest? come on. level 70 was where it's at.

ruby and sapphire... i remember picking up gold and silver and trying to do stuff that I thought was added in there.. turns out that ruby and sapphire just added a TON of content. which I liked. They were prettty good, but there were too many pokemanz. still really good. I remember hunting around for sapphire when I realized... when my van was stolen, my GBA and sapphire and the actino replay were inside the glovebox at the time..

I had a friend who routinely kicked my ass with that. He developped an brutal combination with Substitute and then constantly using Double Team until the substitute broke, then doing it a second time before actually starting to fight. It was almost impossible to hit him after that.

Gold/Silver were my favourites. I played Yellow and enjoyed it, and I adored Silver. I gave all my lil Pokemon nicknames, built them all up to level 100 (I've still got the squad somewhere). I tried to play Crystal but never got too far with it. I also picked up a copy of Sapphire a few years back but never got past the Elite Four. I just lost interest. Although I think part of that was because I didn't know anyone anymore who played it. Pokemon really needs someone else to battle against you to be really fun.

I can still remember my favourite squad:Gengar, Gyarados, Tyranitar, Typhlosion, Electabuzz and DragoniteThen someone would challenge me with a ground type ¬_¬

Midnight wrote:gold and silver pissed me off with the eassssssy elite four. I mean, the last 2 or 3 gym leaders in yellow/red/blue could've taken gold and silver's elite four. level 50 as the highest? come on. level 70 was where it's at.

Well, there were all the kanto leaders, then pkmntrainer RED, too (or was that just in crystal?).

I went from red/blue straight to Diamond/Pearl, and I enjoy the later one much much better. The global trading thing is really cool, as are the Wifi battles.

495 (or how many there are) is a pretty ridiculous though if their slogan is still "Gotta Catch 'Em All!". But I do enjoy the variety and the mixing of types. It's pretty cool. The Dinosaur that has leaves for wings, yes!

also: Cheese, I love your display pic. Stinky cheese man ftw!

<Guo_Si> Hey, you know what sucks?<TheXPhial> vaccuums<Guo_Si> Hey, you know what sucks in a metaphorical sense?<TheXPhial> black holes<Guo_Si> Hey, you know what just isn't cool?<TheXPhial> lava?

I'm playing Pearl right now, and I think it is awesome. It's fixed a lot of the problems of the old games (more realistic Berries), made mechanics more realistic (there's Physical and Special attacks for each element, so the Physical Attack of (say) Grass-types is actually useful now to some degree), added some awesome minigames (Underground, whee!), and I also really love the online capabilities it takes advantage of. I also really liked Gold/Silver/Crystal, mostly for plotline and nostalgia (I mainly dug Crystal because it was the first you could play as a girl).

Yellow was fucking annoying. I hated being forced to take Pikachu at the beginning, and him following me around everywhere was really annoying. I liked how it followed the story closer than R/B did, but that didn't make up for the parts that bothered me. Once I played through it once, I could never bring myself to play through it again over R/B, to the point where I bought used copies of both Red and Blue to replace my broken ones (MissingNo. glitch kills those games -_-).

I never played any Pokemon games other than those three, but I liked the games' simplicity and I think anything past the second generation just seems stupid. My girlfriend gave me her copy of Pokemon Gold, but I haven't played it yet. I may someday, I even kind of want to, but I don't have enough time to invest in it right now.

CrackTheSky wrote:Yellow... I liked how it followed the story closer than R/B did, but that didn't make up for the parts that bothered me.

The 'story' originated with Red and Green (did Blue come out in Japan?), and was heavily modified to fit in an anime show - One of the most annoying things about yellow for me was the desperate need for it to follow said 'story'...

EXAMPLE: There was one episode in which the heroes encountered a boy with a sandshrew which had won 100 battles without a single loss... this entire half-hour of the show was based on a youngster on the path to rock tunnel who said this.

PS: On rereading before posting, I realise that the example could be taken to mean that that character from the game was based on that episode, and all I've done is find a link between the two... but I'm still absolutely certain that the games came first.